Image transfer medium and process for producing same

ABSTRACT

An image-transfer medium includes a transparent substrate and a transferable material formed on a first surface of the substrate. A selected portion of the transferable material can be transferred in an arbitrary shape to an article to form a personalized image by a cold transfer-printing operation. Moreover, the remaining hollowed portion after the removal of the selected portion, including the transparent substrate, can be adhered to the same or another article having a light-transmitting surface to exhibit special lightening effect.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an image-transfer medium and how to usethis image-transfer medium, and more particularly to an image-transfermethod and the use of an image-transfer medium for providing anarbitrary light-transmissible image onto an article.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Transfer-printing operation is widely used for printing images ontosurfaces of selected articles such as cards, clothes, papers, cups orequipments. In general transfer-printing operations, a plurality ofpredetermined images are first printed onto a transparent film, and thendesired images are selected to be transfer-printed onto the targetarticle from the transparent film.

FIG. 1(a) illustrates a conventional image-transfer medium. Theimage-transfer medium 10 comprises a transparent film substrate 11 and atransferred material 12. The transferable layer 12 further comprises anink layer 121 and a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer 122. Thetransferable layer 12 is laminated onto a surface 112 of the transparentfilm substrate 11, facing the target article (not shown).

Take an image-transfer medium with alphabetic letters for example. Whenan image “PRIMAX” is to be printed on a target article such as a card,the image-transfer medium 10 is put on the target article with thetransferable layer 12 in contact with the surface of the target article.Then, the selected letters, i.e. P, R, I, M, A and X in the transferablelayer of FIG. 1(b), are stripped from the image-transfer medium 10 andsimultaneously adhered to the target article one by one by applying adepressing force to the other surface 111 the transparent film substrate11 at each of the corresponding positions of the selected letters.

In the prior art, the images to be transfer-printed are predetermined bymanufactures. Consequently, for transfer-printing a personalized imagesuch as signatures, favorite signs or handwritings, the desirable imageshould be printed in advance by the manufacturers and included in theink layer 121 of the transferable layer 12 of the image-transfer medium10. Since people tend to like the new and loathe the old, the uniformimage-transfer mediums are no longer satisfying.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a use of animage-transfer medium allowing the user to transfer-print personalizedimages.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a use of animage-transfer medium allowing an article to be decorated with not onlycolored but also transparent patterns.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a method forapplying an image-transfer medium to an article to create a personalizedimage with particular visual effect. A first aspect of the presentinvention relates to a method for applying an image onto an article. Thearticle comprising a light transmissible surface and a light sourcedisposed under the light transmissible surface. The method comprisessteps of: providing an image-transfer medium comprising a transparentsubstrate and a transferable material formed on a first surface of thesubstrate; removing a selected portion of the transferable material toobtain a hollowed transferable material with a specific pattern vacancy;and adhering the remaining transferable material onto the lighttransmissible surface of the article, thereby allowing light emitted bythe light source to penetrate through the specific pattern vacancy.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a use of animage-transfer medium for applying an image onto an article. Theimage-transfer medium comprises a transparent substrate, a transferableink layer and a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer. The use comprisescold transfer-printing a first selected portion of the transferable inklayer onto the article when an ink pattern image is required; andremoving a second selected portion of the transferable ink layer, andadhering the remaining transferable ink layer along with the transparentsubstrate onto the article when a hollowed pattern image is required.

Preferably, the cold transfer-printing operation and/or the ink-layerremoving operation is performed by applying a depressing force directlyonto the transparent substrate at positions corresponding to the firstselected portion of the transferable ink layer with a writing tool orstamping tool so that the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer adheres theselected portion of the transferable ink layer away from the transparentsubstrate.

Preferably, the image-transfer medium further comprises an isolationlayer containing a tack reducing agent for decreasing adhesion betweenthe transferable ink layer and the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer.

In accordance with the present invention, the transferable ink layer canbe a continuous layer or formed with a plurality of the transferabledots. Each of the dots has a shape selected from a group consisting of acircle, an ellipse, a triangle, a rectangle and a honeycomb.

The above objects and advantages of the present invention will becomemore readily apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art afterreviewing the following detailed description and accompanying drawings,in which:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1(a) is a schematic diagram showing the lamination of aconventional image-transfer medium;

FIG. 1(b) is a schematic diagram exemplifying a general transferablepattern of the conventional image-transfer medium in FIG. 1(a);

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the lamination of animage-transfer medium according to a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIGS. 3(a)-3(c) are three examples of patterns in the ink layer of FIG.2 according to the present invention;

FIGS. 4(a) and 4(b) exemplify the use of the image-transfer mediumaccording to the present invention; and

FIGS. 5(a) and 5(b) exemplify alternative use of the image-transfermediums according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIG. 2, an image-transfer medium 30 according to apreferred embodiment of the present invention comprises a transparentfilm substrate 31 and a transferable laminated material 32. For example,the transparent film substrate 31 is made of a flexible and transparentmaterial such as biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP). Thetransferable laminated material 32 comprises an ink layer 321, apressure-sensitive adhesive layer 323 and an isolation layer 322sandwiched between the ink layer 321 and the pressure-sensitive adhesivelayer 323. The transferable laminated material 32 is attached onto asurface 312 of the transparent film substrate 31, and directly contactswith the target article (not shown) while using.

The ink layer 321 is constituted of one or more pigments and someadditives. The composition is appropriately selected in order to achieveoptimal transfer-printing effect. For example, for black ink, thecomposition of the ink layer 321 comprises 5˜20 wt % black powder, 25˜55wt % copolymer resin, 2˜8 wt % dioctylphosphate, 10˜40 wt % sophorone,5˜35 wt % SOLVESSO™ (an aromatic hydrocarbon solvent from Imperial OilLimited) and 5˜35 wt % solvent. On the other hand, for silver ink, thecomposition of the ink layer 321 comprises 5˜35 wt % silver powder,20˜50 wt % copolymer resin, 2˜8 wt % dioctylphosphate, 5˜35 wt %isophorone, 5˜35 wt % SOLVESSO™ and 5˜35 wt % solvent. The isolationlayer 322 is also transparent, and contains a tack reducing agent fordecreasing adhesion between the ink layer 321 and the pressure-sensitiveadhesive layer 323 in order that the ink patterns can be stripped andtransferred neat.

For transfer-printing personalized image onto an article, the ink of theimage-transfer medium should be strippable as any arbitrary pattern. Inorder to achieve this purpose, the ink layer 321 is preferably acontinuous layer or consists of a number of very close small units, e.g.dots.

FIGS. 3(a)˜3(c) are schematic diagrams showing two examples of ink layerpatterns, which can achieve the above-mentioned purposes. In theembodiment of FIG. 3(a), the ink layer 321 is a continuous layer.Alternatively, the ink layer 321 comprises a plurality of transferabledots P discretely arranged at regular interval d, as shown in FIG. 3(b)or 3(c). The interval d between two adjacent dots is not particularlylimited, but it is preferably not too small to be produced or not toobig in consideration of visual effect. For example, the density of thetransferable dots P is at least 20 dots per inch, and preferably in arange of 80˜200 dots per inch. The transferable dots P of the ink layer321 can be formed by a known halftone printing technology.

The shape of each single transferable dot can be arbitrary. In additionto the circular shape and the honeycomb shape as shown in FIGS. 3(b) and3(c), it can also be an ellipse, a triangle, a rectangle, etc.

In order to impart proper dot size and density to the ink layer 321, thehalftone technique with proper meshes is applied hereto. Firstly, theink layer 321 is applied onto the surface 312 of the transparent filmsubstrate 31 by 100 mesh/inch. Then, the isolation sub-layer 322 isapplied onto the ink layer 321 by 150 mesh/inch. Afterward, thepressure-sensitive adhesive layer 323 is applied onto the isolationlayer 322 by 200 mesh/inch. In such way, an image-transfer medium havinga transferable dot density of 100 dots per inch is obtained.

The use of the image-transfer medium of the present invention will bedescribed in more details with reference to the following examples. Aperipheral mouse device is used as the target device where a desiredpattern is to be attached. The desired pattern can be arbitrarilydesigned as mentioned above, and the letter “A” is exemplified herein asthe desired pattern.

In FIG. 4(a), the surface 312 of the image-transfer medium 30 is firstlyplaced in contact with a surface 41 of the mouse 40. Then, a coldtransfer-printing operation is performed. That is, a depressing force isexerted onto the opposite surface 311 the transparent film substrate 31to track the letter pattern “A”. By this way, the portion T1 of the inklayer 321, which receives the depressed force and corresponds to theletter pattern “A”, is stripped from the image-transfer medium 30 andadhered to the mouse 40 via the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer 323.After the remaining portion except the portion T1 is removed from themouse 40, the appearance of the mouse 40 is as shown in FIG. 4(b). Forexample, the cold transfer-printing operation can be performed through awriting operation using a writing tool 42 such as a pen, a stick or apencil. The cold transfer-printing operation can also be performed witha stamp tool (not shown) to stamp the desired pattern onto the targetarticle.

The above embodiment is illustrated by referring to a mouse device.Nevertheless, the present invention can be applied to any other suitablearticles such as cards, clothes, papers, cups or equipments.

An alternative use of the image-transfer medium 30 of the presentinvention is illustrated in FIGS. 5(a) and 5(b). In this example, thedesired letter pattern “A” is first removed from the ink layer by beingtransfer-printed onto a non-target article or another position of thetarget article (not shown). Then, the remaining portion T3 is adhered tothe mouse device 50 having a light transmissible housing along with thetransparent film substrate 31. Through the light emitted by a lightsource 52 inside the mouse 50 and penetrating the transparent topsurface 51, the hollowed letter pattern “A” can be exhibited withspecial lightening effect.

From the above description, the image-transfer medium of the presentinvention is capable of transfer-printing a personalized image accordingto the user's requirement.

While the invention has been described in terms of what is presentlyconsidered to be the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is tobe understood that the invention needs not be limited to the disclosedembodiment. On the contrary, it is intended to cover variousmodifications and similar arrangements included within the spirit andscope of the appended claims which are to be accorded with the broadestinterpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similarstructures.

1. A method for applying an image onto an article, said articlecomprising a light transmissible surface and a light source disposedunder said light tranmissible surface, said method comprising steps of:providing an image-transfer medium comprising a transparent substrateand a transferable material formed on a first surface of said substrate;removing a selected portion of said transferable material to obtain ahollowed transferable material with a specific pattern vacancy; andadhering the remaining transferable material onto said lighttransmissible surface of said article, thereby allowing light emitted bysaid light source to penetrate through the specific pattern vacancy. 2.The method according to claim 1 wherein said transferable materialcomprises a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer, and said step of removingsaid selected portion of said transferable material is performed byapplying a depressing force onto a second surface of the substrate witha writing tool or stamping tool.
 3. The method according to claim 1wherein said remaining transferable material is adhered to said articlealong with said transparent substrate.
 4. The method according to claim1 wherein said transferable material is formed as a continuous layer. 5.The method according to claim 1 wherein said transferable material isformed with a plurality of said transferable dots, each of which has ashape selected from a group consisting of a circle, an ellipse, atriangle, a rectangle and a honeycomb.
 6. A use of an image-transfermedium for applying an image onto an article, said image-transfer mediumcomprising a transparent substrate, a transferable ink layer and apressure-sensitive adhesive layer, said use comprising: coldtransfer-printing a first selected portion of said transferable inklayer onto the article when an ink pattern image is required; andremoving a second selected portion of said transferable ink layer, andadhering the remaining transferable ink layer along with saidtransparent substrate onto the article when a hollowed pattern image isrequired.
 7. The use according to claim 6 wherein said coldtransfer-printing operation is performed by applying a depressing forcedirectly onto said transparent substrate at positions corresponding tosaid first selected portion of said transferable ink layer with awriting tool or stamping tool so that said pressure-sensitive adhesivelayer adheres said first selected portion of said transferable ink layerto the article.
 8. The method according to claim 6 wherein said secondselected portion of said transferable ink layer is removed by applying adepressing force onto said transparent substrate at positionscorresponding to said second selected portion of said transferable inklayer so that said pressure-sensitive adhesive layer adheres said secondselected portion of said transferable ink layer away from saidtransparent substrate.
 9. The use according to claim 6 wherein saidimage-transfer medium further comprises an isolation layer containing atack reducing agent for decreasing adhesion between said transferableink layer and said pressure-sensitive adhesive layer.
 10. The useaccording to claim 6 wherein said transferable ink layer is a continuouslayer.
 11. The use according to claim 6 wherein said transferable inklayer is formed with a plurality of said transferable dots, each ofwhich has a shape selected from a group consisting of a circle, anellipse, a triangle, a rectangle and a honeycomb.
 12. An apparatus,comprising: an transparent film substrate; and a transferable laminatedmaterial, said transferable laminated material comprising: an inklayer;a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer; and an isolation layer disposedbetween the ink layer and the pressure-sensitive layer.
 13. An apparatusas claimed in claim 12, wherein said transparent film substratecomprises a biaxially oriented propylene type material.
 14. An apparatusas claimed in claim 12, wherein said ink layer comprises black powder,copolymer resin, dioctylphosphate, sophorone, SOLVESSO, or solvent, orcombinations thereof.
 15. An apparatus as claimed in claim 12, whereinsaid ink layer comprises silver powder, copolymer resin,dioctylphosphate, isophorone, SOLVESSO, or solvent, or combinationsthereof.
 16. An apparatus as claimed in claim 12, wherein the isolationlayer is transparent.
 17. An apparatus as claimed in claim 12, whereinthe isolation layer comprises a tack reducing agent capable ofdecreasing adhesion between the ink layer and the pressure-sensitiveadhesion layer.
 18. An apparatus as claimed in claim 12, wherein the inklayer comprises a continuous layer, or a number of units, orcombinations thereof.
 19. An apparatus as claimed in claim 12, whereinat least a portion of the ink layer is capable of being transferred to asurface via application of force to said transparent film substrate.